All You Need to Know About Wizardkind
by Polydicta
Summary: Nicholas Flamel and Albus Dumbledore were wrong – there is an arithmantically satisfying and most important thirteenth use for Dragon's Blood.


**All You Need To Know About Wizardkind**

by Polydicta

Nicholas Flamel and Albus Dumbledore were wrong – there is an arithmantically satisfying and most important thirteenth use for Dragon's Blood.

**Disclaimer: **

All fiction is derivative and fan fiction doubly so. I make no claim to own any part of any of the following, all I have done is an attempt to put together the elements in a novel fashion, using words and ideas like Lego ™ bricks.

There is no money involved – all I do is to share what I do for my own amusement.

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**All You Need To Know About Wizardkind**

"Harry?"

Harry looked up at his best friend. "Yes 'Mione?"

"You know that potions essay? The one where we have to find out about some piece of important magical research?"

Harry nodded, wondering where this was leading.

"Well, I decided to look into Professor Dumbledore's research into the uses of Dragons' Blood."

"Ye-ess?"

"Well, here's the list. Can you see what's missing?"

Harry glanced down the list. He then read the list carefully. He then counted the uses to be sure that the list was all there.

There were the uses in language potions, anti-burn salves, burn treatments, pyrophorics, ward-ingredients, curse treatments, blood replenishers, magical inks, flying ointments, seeing potions and eyesight restoratives … everything that he had been taught was there, including the one that he didn't understand. What _was_ aureomancy anyway?

With a frown he looked at his best friend, nodding slowly.

"It tells you a lot about wizardkind, doesn't it?"

She nodded gravely. "It makes me wonder if I really want to stay in the magical world or to let it burn under Voldemort's fist."

Harry looked more serious than ever. He nodded slowly. "Thirteen is a much more appropriate number to my way of thinking, a prime number and rather more symbolic for what we're both thinking. When's the essay due, again?"

"A week next Thursday."

"Let's sleep on it, but I think you're right. I wonder if any of the foreign wizards have a better attitude?"

The days passed and Hedwig flew the length of Britain several times.

The due date for the essay arrived and two empty beds were all that was seen of the Boy-Who-Lived and his girlfriend. That evening, the Headmaster received an owl stating that the pair had withdrawn from Hogwarts and that if the headmaster wanted to know why, then he was to consider the thirteenth and most important use of Dragons' Blood.

.

Two years later, as Albus Dumbledore lay dying at the feet of Lord Voldemort, he still wondered what the young couple had known.

"What, Albus, no Boy-Who-Lived to save your worthless hide?"

Dumbledore's voice was weak and halting. "H-he l-l-left."

"Why? Why would your chosen one leave you, the wise and powerful Albus Dumbledore?"

"Dragon's Blood."

"What?"

"The thirteenth use for Dragon's Blood …"

Tom Marvolo Riddle, Lord Voldemort burst out laughing. The long missed tears of mirth poured down his cheeks.

"Why, Headmaster, Harry Potter and I are so much more alike than even I knew! That is the precise reason why I decided to end Britain's wizarding culture! Why I decided to destroy everything wizard and to rebuild from the ashes up. Why I set myself on the road to immortality – so I could hold the reins long enough …"

Dumbledore looked at the Dark Lord, a question in his eye. There was blood on his lips and he knew that he was not long for this world.

"But, Tom … what is this use that you both hold so dear?"

"Is that your dying wish, Albus, to know why you failed?"

Dumbledore nodded weakly and croaked out a faint _yes_.

"My dear Abus, it's quite simple. Dragons' Blood's most important and its original use, of course, is to keep the dragon alive."

Albus Dumbledore's eyes glazed over in death a minute later, his dying mind now aware of how far wizardkind had failed.

.

Tom Riddle sent an owl to Harry Potter. The message was elegant in its brevity.

_Harry,_

_I had to tell him the thirteenth use as he lay dying._

_Good luck in whatever you do._

_Tom._


End file.
